When I buy furniture, and right now I am accumulating desks in the basement for work stations, I only buy real wood. Most furniture is particle board (or chipboard) covered with a wood veneer or melamine based overlays. Veneer furniture is cheaper to make than real wood furniture and the veneer looks more impressive (at least to the untutored eye). But it is not as resilient – it appears sturdy but when relocated it is prone to chipping and, once the veneer is chipped, you see the particles underneath. A sudden transition from a sleek sophisticated appearance to something vulnerable and quite ordinary. It is very difficult to repair. It also does not tolerate reworking – I can sand down the scars and dents in real wood and then stain and varnish it and it assumes a new persona, not so the wood veneers.
Different from the veneers are the plywoods – a tough resilient breed made from thin sheets of veneer glued with their grain at right angles for greater strength. Plywood has several advantages over wood – resists warping, greater strength, and often less expensive. Takes stress well and keeps going, but is fabricated and does not have the depth and integrity of real wood. I prefer authencity and so I choose the oak or even the pine furniture when I visit the thrift store.
Which makes me think of our approaches to living. My NuTrac journey certainly is not glossy but, I hope, will be resilient to the knocks of life.